I highly recommend this retreat, hosted by my friend and personal wellness coach Cristie Ritz King of Real Life Wellness. Her sessions have inspired me to take better care of my body. Her informative, personally tailored counsel has taught me how to increase healthy greens and plant-based proteins in my diet for increased energy, health and mood. She has offered a good deal of advice that has made it easy for me to decrease my caffeine and alcohol consumption, and get more sleep and exercise (and these were hurdles I have been fighting for years). I credit her guidance in losing 10 more postpartum pounds.

This retreat also includes so many restorative goodies: massage therapy! guided meditation! and more. Register before May 15 to receive $50 off the retreat price!

The retreat will be hosted by Cristie Ritz King, M. Ed, CHC of Real Life Wellness. Cristie received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where she studied more than one hundred dietary theories and a variety of practical lifestyle coaching methods.  She offers her clients simple solutions and plans that work when they are trying to balance challenging, hectic, REAL lives.

Visit Cristie’s Web site and blog Real Life Wellness. 

P.S. Cristie is a Silver Spring native and former parent in Silver Spring. She is old my MOMS Club buddy and current blogging mama colleague — check our her parenting site, The Right Hand Mom. Cristie now lives in the New Jersey suburbs with her family.

Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and the Scary  is the best book you will read this year. And us DC-area parents can see author and insanely popular Scary Mommy blogger Jill Smokler read her best-selling book in person this week!

April 16th at 7:00 PM • BARNES & NOBLE • 4801 Bethesda Avenue • Bethesda, MD

April 18th at 7:30 PM Scary Mommy Night Out!• JCC OF WASHINGTON • 6125 Montrose Road • Rockville, MD • Register for the event

 You really need your own personally autographed and enscribed copy of this scary good read. Pick up one at the readings,  or win one of two copies on my new non-local blog A Parent in America!

And don’t forget to enter to win a laptop computer before the giveaway on A Parent in America closes this week!

The book contains short essays of motherhood full of humor and reality by my friend Jill Smokler of the insanely popular blog Scary Mommy. Whether she is admitting that she wants to “kick your ass hard” in the birthday party wars or considers the community pool “hell on earth”, Jill is a mom to whom all of us can relate and adore. She is hilarious and refreshingly honest about what really is going through mothers’ heads and lives while parenting young children.

But as they said on Reading Rainbow, “you don’t have to take my word for it”:

“Get ready to ditch those Prada shoes (and anything else nice you own) and face reality–you haven’t had a brutal boss until you’ve had a baby. Confessions of a Scary Mommyis hilariously, outrageously truthful about the hardest job I know. Put this book at the top of your diaper bag!” —Lauren Weisberger, New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada

“Hilarious, brutal honesty about parenting.” — New York Times bestselling author Michael Ian Black

“Any mother who doesn’t stifle a million knowing laughs while reading Confessions of a Scary Mommy needs to make sure her funny bone wasn’t accidentally sucked into the diaper genie.” —Julie Klam, New York Times bestselling author of You Had Me at Woof

The book’s chapters all begin with the most outrageous anonymous confessions from the confessional and message boards populated by Scary Mommy’s followers: real parents like us.

Get more Scary Mommy daily at Jill Smokler’s award-winning blog, Scary Mommy.

Win a copy of Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and the Scary on A Parent in America.

Buy the book – hard copy or Kindle.

And I’ll see you at the Scary Mommy book signing events!

Disclosure: Amazon affiliate links are used.

My family and I are hoping to find a part-time sitter we love as much as Gloribel and our other adored weekend date night sitters we lose to college!

Hands down, the number one  question I receive from readers is for help finding a nanny, babysitter or child care provider in the Washington, DC area. And while I have a list of resources I pass along to readers, I always admit that as a part-time working and largely stay-at-home mom, I do not have much firsthand experience finding a regular sitter.

Now that Alice is six months old and less sleepy-in-the-carseat-during-work-meetings mobile, I have realized I need a once-a-week, part-time sitter. I could ask around. I could post on list servs and nanny forums. I could “hit on” sweet sitters at the park, Mrs. X style. I could pray that Glenda the Good Godmother would just come down from heaven in a bubble and offer to watch my kid.

But what have I been doing? I have been worrying about how tough it is to find a sitter and sitting on my bottom, doing nada to find a nanny. I have been avoiding in-person meetings, skipping sleep and working at night.

Thankfully, Plum District Washington DC has a great deal that has prompted me to get a move on my sitter needs: A  membership to SeekingSitters plus 4 hours of babysitting for just $53 (a 50% savings!). They are also throwing in two AMC Gold Experience™ Movie Tickets for a ready-made date night!

I am getting this deal and I recommend you get it too! Do you need a babysitter a couple days a week? 40+ hours? For the occasional date night? For a wedding you have to attend next week but you don’t have clue who is going to watch your kids and it is stressing you out? SeekingSittersDC will hook you up!

Yesterday I received the Plum District deal, filled out the SeekingSitters application, spoke to SeekingSitters DC owner Lisa Opolion about my immediate needs for a part-time sitter and TODAY SeekingSitters is working on finding me the perfect match for my needs. I read through the available sitter profiles and marked a few who seemed a promising fit for the service to vet for me.

I can relax knowing that all of the women in their arsenal are thoroughly background-checked and that SeekingSitters DC Metro will handle all the payments and appropriate taxes. Lisa says that when they interview and screen their sitters, a major criteria is whether the owners would allow the sitters to care for their own children, and only if the answer is a hearty “Yes!” are the sitters hired.

It is so civilized! I feel silly for being so stymied by finding a sitter for the last few months. This Plum District and SeekingSitters DC deal has provided me with very affordable peace. This Plum District deal is only available for TWO more days, so if (like me), you have been in need of a sitter or nanny but worrying about how to go about finding someone, jump on this deal now!

I’ll keep you all posted on our childcare journey, but I am so excited and relieved that it has begun TODAY!

Disclosure: I received this $53 PlumDistrict deal including a SeekingSitters membership, four hours of babysitting and movie tickets courtesy of Plum District. However, I will of course be paying for our family’s future regular babysitter’s hourly wages and all related fees completely myself at the rate charged to all SeekingSitter clients. All current and future views expressed about my experience are my own.

Mark your calendars, call your friends and get your tickets NOW to attend the year’s best night out:

tART at Strathmore on Thursday October 27

A night of “Art with zing, music with spark and tangy treats. “

Beginning at 6:30 p.m in the Music Center at Strathmore, this fall arts fundraiser celebrates the power of the small, but sassy—the adventurous, the new, the offbeat and cheeky. Guests will be immersed in art as it’s being made and will incite real-time music creations by Strathmore’s Artists in Residence and local artists.

Electronica musician Yoko K. will create the soundtrack of the evening, looping guest soundbites into a continually evolving, organic music score. A large scale, site-specific installation will take shape at the hands of Wilmer Wilson IV as guests mingle. Additionally the live music performances will be top-notch: a mashup of live music from blues rock outfit The Daryl Davis Band, Gypsy jazz queen Mary Alouette and R&B crooner Jay Hayden.

Here’s one of my favorite features of the night: Stephanie Potter Corwin will capture the energy of the evening with guest glamour shots in her photo booth, projected live onto large screens throughout the party and e-mailed to revelers as mementos.

The food and drinks menu is really incredible. Dinner, hors d’oeuvres and open bar drinks are completely included in the reasonable ticket price. In case you are as food and beverage obsessed as I am, here is the run-down of the menu and signature cocktails.

The passed special cocktail will be a St. Germain, made with champagne and St. Germain liqueur, “the first liqueur in the world created in the artisanal French manner from freshly handpicked elderflower blossoms.”

Dinner will include

• mini foie gras-stuffed hamburgers with charred tomato catsup
• seared salmon with mushroom risotto
• stuffed chicken breast with red pepper and goat cheese
• pumpkin ravioli in a sage cream sauce topped with shaved parmesan
• roasted tomato, baby artichoke and gorgonzola cheese tart with gourmet greens and light vinaigrette
• braised short ribs with Yukon gold mashed potatoes

I don’t know about you, but I personally will not eat that well probably the rest of the year…and that is counting Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I will still have to find room to save for the dessert of chocolate ganache tartlettes, lemon tarts, passion fruit cupcakes with caramel buttercream and mini whoopie pies.

There will also be a fun martini raffle: you throw in $25 for a signature tART Appletini plus a costume piece of jewelry you wear all night and keep, and then you are entered for a chance to win the real thing — an oxidized silver diamond and pearl macramé bracelet valued at $750 from contemporary jeweler Amethyst..

You can also score some great deals on indulgent delights during the live and silent auctions, with Rolex watches, spa treatments, getaways to New York, chic shopping and more.

DISCOUNT – Just $75 for dinner, drinks, entertainment and a sparkling night to remember

Tickets for tART are $100 for most people, but special A Parent in Silver Spring readers can score all of the evening’s amazing delights for a discounted $75! 

And this is a night out you can feel GREAT about, as all the proceeds support Strathmore’s cultivation of young and future artists, from the 20,000 second and fifth graders who are introduced to orchestral music each year during the Strathmore Student Concerts to the rising stars of the Strathmore Artists in Residence program.

Here are the 3 Easy Steps to get your special ticket price of $75:

1.    Go to Strathmore’s website and register here, making sure to punch in Source Code 2193

2.    Then go to the tART event page on the calendar

3.    Tickets will be available to you at the special discounted rate of just $75.

4.    Add tickets to your cart and check out!

 

GIVEAWAYS

Giveaway #1:

I so believe this is the BEST Moms’ Night Out event of the year that I personally purchased two tickets and would love to give one away to YOU!

Leave a comment below if you would like my extra ticket for yourself.

Organize a GNO (girls’ night out, BTW) and if you win, share your winning ticket with a friend.

Giveaway #2:

If you attend tART, find me at the event and I will personally purchase you a $25 signature tART Appletini and entry in the martini raffle!

Yup, even if your entire moms’ group attends, I’ll hook you all up with your snazzy bracelet and drink combo, as well as a chance to win the $750 grand prize bracelet.

So send this post and link to your friends, tell your dudes to watch the kids or call your sitter, and join me for a fabulous (and very reasonable!) night out.

Disclosure: Strathmore is an advertising partner of A Parent in Silver Spring. However, I purchased the event tickets myself at full price and have offered my services as a member of the event host committee. Strathmore is a performing arts non-profit which I wholly support.